Our Shantou Sweeties

We were in Atlanta for Thanksgiving with friends and had the chance to meet up with another family who adopted their daughter from the same orphanage as Sadie a few months before Sadie. Here are a few pictures.

The girls enjoying their ice cream.
The girls and their big brothers.
Having some fun driving the race cars in the game room.
A hug goodbye.

Happy faces

Indoor fun

Since park-visiting weather is pretty much behind us now, 'tis the season for the living room playground.





The cushions spend much more time off the couches than on them between October and April.

Little photographers

We recently did our final post-placement report for Sadie's adoption. One of the requirements was to submit 10 photos to send to China, one of which had to include both of us with Sadie. Since 99% of the pictures on my camera are of Sam or Sadie or the two of them together, we had to take one to fit the requirement.

However, the social worker was coming soon and the only available photographer was Sam.

I think he did pretty well.
And then, of course, Sadie felt she needed to take a picture with Mommy's camera too. (She did have a little help from me, though.)

You can teach an old dog new tricks

We got our dog a few months before Sam was born.

Not the wisest decision in the world, since there were a more than a couple days having a newborn and a new puppy just about sent me over the edge.

We eventually settled in to a routine, but the dog's training was severely neglected as a result of being de-throned so quickly from being the center of attention. (Anyone who has come to visit and been the recipient of lots of jumping and barking can attest to the fact that he could have used a bit more instruction in the behavior department.)

Anyway - the kids and Joe decided to teach the Gus-man to fetch.

They went outside armed with a frisbie and bits of dog food to offer as a reward (since I am too cheap to buy dog treats).

I expected a less-than-successful outcome.

Here is Joe, explaining the process to all the parties involved. Doesn't Gus look like he is really paying attention?
The throw.
The return! (I couldn't believe it!)
One treat from Daddy....
One from Sam....
And one from Sadie.
Quite an impressive trick when your only reward is three pieces of dog food (especially when there is a bowlful inside available for consumption at any time)!

Ready for winter

Or maybe her ears were just cold while eating breakfast.



I know. A lovely breakfast of mixed-berry applesauce and a chocolate chip cookie. That classifies as a serving of fruit (or maybe 2 servings - 1 for the berries and 1 for the apples in the 'sauce) and a serving of bread, right? And I'm sure there part of an egg and some small bit of dairy in the cookie, too.

The (second) annual pumpkin farm trip

When my mom was here (something like 6 weeks or so or more ago....) we took the kids to the pumpkin farm nearby. Sam and I visited there last year on his last day at home as an only child.

This year it was quite chilly. We didn't stay too long and didn't even get any pumpkins because I figured I'd come back with the kids again when it was nicer sometime later in October - something that never materialized. So - the pictures are a bit limited.


Sliding out of the barn.
Climbing out of the church.
Sadie atop the pirate ship.
Look at how tall they are!
Despite her pained look, she really was having a good time.
Sam couldn't be troubled to leave the pirate ship to take a picture with the pumpkins.

On a short leash

What to do when life gets a little boring?

Put a leash on your little sister and take her for a walk.

And in case you can't tell, she was loving every second of it. She may even have put the leash on herself.

Catching up

I just realized I had a lot of pictures on the camera card from October that I still hadn't blogged about, so some of the posts below are a little dated. I still have a few more to do tomorrow, and then (hopefully) I will keep up with current events around here!

The last leaf

Sam noticed the last leaf on our little tree in the backyard a couple weeks ago. I think he wanted to get it down in hopes that it would make the snow come sooner....
Gonna get it...
....getting closer....
...got it! (Thanks to a tall mommy!)

Just a little messy

Joe fed Sam breakfast one Saturday morning. He declared he was done and told Joe that he thought maybe he needed his hands wiped.

Well, if they looked anything like his face did, he was right!

A girl after her mother's heart!

I left Sadie watching TV (or so I thought) while I doing some cooking on Halloween. Trick-or-treating time was about to start, so I had set out our bowl of candy on the stairs by the front door.

I turned from the stove to glance at her in the family room to make sure she was ok, and realized I could no longer see her.

This is where I found her.

Notice there are 2 random milk duds on the landing, an empty Whoppers wrapper near her foot, and she is attempting to open a piece of gum....and is quite proud of herself.

Watch out, Lance!

Sadie recently re-discovered her bike helmet in the garage and insisted on wearing it most of the day one day.

Credit for the following picture and caption goes to my husband.

Sadie is taking her Tour de France training so seriously she eats with her helmet on! She is working on her stare down....

Relaxing with Grandmommie

Joe's mom came to visit this week. She spent the day with the kids and I was free to go run errands childless - what a wonderful feeling!

Here they are at the end of the day, relaxing in front of a movie. (Sadie was a little too into the "relaxing" part to look at the camera.)

I married a very impressive man

I spent the last 24 hours shopping with my best friend. (Well, not the whole 24 hours. We did sleep sometime in the middle of that.) Joe was home with the kids, and after a fairly eventful night (both kids waking up, getting kicked in the face by one of aforementioned children who was brought into bed with Daddy, a bloody nose caused by the kick, and a puking dog) Joe took the kids to the zoo and even managed to get some pictures taken while they were there! (I never even bring the camera along when it's just me because I figure I will never have a spare second that I am not chasing someone to attempt to take a picture.)

This series of pictures pretty much sums up our children......constant motion!




And they took a spin on the "round and round."

I should not jump to conclusions.

The last 2 times I went a few minutes without seeing or hearing from Sadie, I found her with a bunch of bubbles and a faceful of toothpaste.

So today when I realized it has been a little while since I had seen or heard her, I assumed the worst.

This is what I found.

Little Miss Sadie, quietly sitting on the couch in the other room, reading her Bible.

I need to ask for forgiveness.....

Can you tell where Sam has been spending a lot of time lately?

Tonight at supper:

Sam: Do grownups always put little boys in trouble?
Me: If they don't listen to the grownups.
Sam: When I'm a grownup, will I get to put little boys in trouble?
Me: When you are a grown up, if you have a little boy and he doesn't listen, I am sure you will put him in trouble.
Sam (rather gleefully): And I'll get to say "1.......2........3......go sit on the steps."?
Me: Yup.
Sam: Or "Go sit on your bed?"
Me: Yup.
Sam (triumphantly): I'll get to tell him where to go.